Help the fight against food poverty this Christmas

Today the Advertiser is calling on kind-hearted residents to spare some food to help fight poverty during the festive season.

We are launching our ‘Feed Our Families’ campaign in the run up to Christmas, by making sure our food banks are well stocked.

And for the first time, we will be joining forces with our sister titles, including the Hucknall Dispatch, Mansfield Chad, Worksop Guardian and Derbyshire Times to help as many people in need as possible to put food on the table.

At a time when more and more people are battling against the breadline with household incomes at breaking point, people are still turning to food banks as a lifeline.

That’s why we at the paper are taking up the baton and asking you to get on board to boost the food bank by making a donation, no matter how small — every tin counts.

“This is about something much more simple than that. This is about you having the power to improve lives - the lives of your neighbours, friends and colleagues.

“Take a look in your cupboards. Buy an extra tin of beans when you do the weekly shop.”

The biggest food bank in our region is run by the Eastwood Volunteer Bureau in Wellington Place.

Set up a few years ago, bags of food has been distributed to those desperately in need.

When food is donated it is checked for use-by dates, sorted and stored by workers at the centre.

People in need of that extra bit of help can either get a food voucher off the Citizens Advice Bureau or job centre, or alternatively they can take proof of how much they receive in benefits directly along to the volunteer bureau.

The bureau distributes about 40 bags of food each month.

But this figure is expected to rise as we get further into the winter and those on low incomes face choices between eating and heating.